A "hold recommendation" is an analyst's opinion that can loosely be interpreted to mean that a stock should be kept by individuals who already own it, but should not be purchased by those who do not already own it. A hold recommendation is generally better than a sell recommendation but worse than a buy recommendation, and it usually means that the analyst believes the stock will remain fairly stable and keep pace with, but not surpass, the market. Holds are also referred to as "neutral" or "market perform" recommendations.